What the Nintendo Switch 2 Really Is

If your virtual kart-racing life was missing something, you’re in luck. Nintendo, the Japanese electronics manufacturer, announced its new Mario Kart appliance today. The Switch 2, which can be used handheld or connected to a television, allows players to race go-karts piloted by characters from the company’s entertainment franchises: Mario, Yoshi, Princess Peach.

The karting games that ran on previous appliances allowed racers to compete on only a series of discrete tracks. But the updated hardware allows for something else: Mario Kart World, as the new software is called, presents its users with the tantalizing prospect of a digital commute. Racers may now convey from one track to the next through a large and continuous simulated world. T...
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